Pinned It and Did It!

I'll admit it:  I wasn't a huge fan of Pinterest when I first found it.  It seemed difficult to use and I just couldn't understand what all of the fuss was about.  But then I tried it again and I found it to be much more user-friendly. 

And now?  Well, now I'm a Pinterest junkie.  I love looking at all of the creative ideas that exist in the world and it inspires me to try new things. 

I found this cute little birdie one day and thought that it looked like just the kind of quick and easy project I like:

Source:  Pinterest via Yuzo Fujii; Original Source:  Misseskwitty's Flickr Photostream

So...I made one.  Oh, yeah.  I finally made something that I had pinned!

Here's my version:

My little bird now lives on top of our TV cabinet:

I'm having fun adding little accents around our home.  Even better?  Using stuff that I already have. 

It makes me feel better about my borderline-hoarding of craft supplies.  : )

Connor Cat.

I don't usually share pictures of Connor on my blog, but I couldn't resist sharing this:

Connor went to a birthday party last Saturday and face painting was a major attraction for C and his friends.  They all looked so good! 

Today is my first day at home in a long while and the chores are stacked against me.  First on my list is a lot of work-work.  Lot's of grading and emails to send.  Midterm grades are due on Monday (already!) so it's time to get my gradebook in order.

Laundry is in progress, unloading the dishwasher is next.  Exciting stuff.  Hopefully I'll have a little time to work on my "Make it in March" challenge.  Who knew that March was going to usher in such a crazy busy schedule for this work at home mom?  Perhaps I should have made my declaration of craftiness in February.  I don't remember it being quite so busy.

I have managed to complete one little art project.  I've always been pretty traditional in terms of art, but lately I've seen a lot of contemporary pieces on Pinterest that have really appealed to me.  I've been thinking about trying to make two large "pictures" for my living room, but I wanted to try my idea on a much smaller scale first.  So here goes...

Definitely imperfect and the jury is still out, but it felt really good to just do something. 

Make it in March.

In my efforts to avoid (A) working and (B) cleaning, I have spent the morning (and part of the afternoon) trolling Pinterest (again) and I've just had a great idea:

WHY DON'T I STOP LOOKING AND ACTUALLY MAKE SOMETHING or DECORATE SOMETHING or ORGANIZE SOMETHING???

Why don't I?
Because I'm lazy, that's why.

But what if I wasn't lazy?
What if I challenged myself to make, decorate, or organize something EVERY SINGLE DAY THIS MONTH?

What would I accomplish?

I guess I'll find out because I'm doing it! 
And guess what else?

I'm going to do it using only what I have in my house right this very minute.

That's right.

My first project is actually in progress and will be ready to post tomorrow...

I'm excited to...

Source:  Pinterest via Eliza De La Portilla; Original source:  1.bp.blogspot.com

Babies & Thin Mints.

Surprise!  I'm posting more than once this week!  Can you believe it?

Do you remember, back in December when I posted the 40 things I wanted to do at age 40?  Well, one of those things is to contribute to charitable causes by either volunteering or donating crafts that I make.  Today, I donated a craft.  Connor's school is having a carnival and they are raffling off different gift baskets.  Connor's class is in charge of collecting items for a "Baby" basket.  So I made this:

Working on a baby project was a lot of fun!  It brought back memories of planning Connor's room and choosing a "theme."  We went with denim, dark red, and khaki colors for his room so this pastel giraffe may not have fit in quite right.  Still,  I tried to be very gender neutral in my color selection...

I love to stitch pretty pictures, but finishing them makes me want to scream.  This time, I tried a shadow box frame, a little rick rack, some linen-like fabric and buttons.  It worked out pretty well, I think.

In other news, I'm currently working on another of my 40 @ Forty items:  Giving up sweets for Lent.  Today is day three.  I'm doing okay, but wouldn't you know it--our Girl Scout cookies arrived last night.  With a tear in my eye, I sent my little box of Thin Mints off to work with Jason this morning.  Oh sure, I could put them in the freezer and save them until Lent is over, but let's be honest--The chances of me caving to temptation, tearing open the package of frozen cookies, and breaking a tooth while feverishly biting into one are just too high. 

I have no self-restraint!  : (

Panic Time.

Well, hello Thursday!  Where did you come from?  Sorry for my bloggy absence this week.  I've been busy becoming increasingly frantic about the upcoming Open House and busily making crafts that look so bad, even my mom wouldn't like them.

I'm trying not to stress out.
I'm trying not to freak about the fact that everything I touch seems to turn ugly.
I'm trying to enjoy this process.  I get to stay home and make things--how awesome is that?

Really, though, I'll be a wee bit happy when the Open House is over and I can find a better way of managing this crafty life that I want to have.  Because I love it.  I really do.  I just want to love it in a calmer, less all-over-the-kitchen-table kind of way.

Do you know what I mean?

Would you like to see some bad pictures of what I've been working on?  Okay, here goes:  

I'm sorry about the bad photos, but I don't have time to edit and, let's be honest, my edited pics aren't much better than my non-edited pics, so...  : )

Have a great day!

Crafting Craziness.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here...

...and that is just weird!  : )

I'm taking part in a "Holiday Open House" next weekend so I am hastily trying to get ready.  I've never done this sort of thing before and I'm feeling a bit unprepared (I found out about it on Monday), but I love spending my days sewing up little pretties and I'm excited beneath all of my fear.

I hope that you all have a good weekend!

Mug Rug.

My Mother-in-Law had a birthday last week so I decided to try my hand at a new project.  I made a mug rug...

I thought that it turned out pretty well, but my boys were a bit, dare I say, underwhelmed.  The conversation went a little something like this:

Me:  Do you like the mug rug I made for your Mom's birthday?
J:  Um.  It's cute, but what did you call it?
Me:  A mug rug.
J:  I don't get it.
C:  Mom, that's a coaster.
Me:  I know it's a coaster, but it sounds cuter if I call it a mug rug.
C:  I don't get it.

I think that it's pretty cute, but...

it's definitely better when you add a festive mug filled with candy!

I think the equation works like this:  Red mug + Candy = Cute Mug Rug. 

Hope my Mother-in-Law likes it!

Going Batty!

Well, it should come as no surprise that I didn't accomplish any of the tasks I had planned for yesterday.  But that doesn't mean that I didn't accomplish anything.  While I was working on my pumpkin (yes, it's in the works), I remembered a little button pumpkin that I saw on this blog last week.  So cute! 


I wanted one, but I didn't have any orange buttons or the motivation to drive to Walmart, so I improvised.  Here is what I came up with:

Burt the Bat is not quite as cute as a pumpkin, but C seems to like him. 
He actually reminds me of a Rorshach picture:

Source

Feel free to consider what that says about me.  I'll wait.  : )

I have big plans for today.  Stop laughing! 

I will finish my pumpkin and one other Halloween project today.

I will make Taco Soup.

I will work on my classes. 

And I'll do all of these things without messing up my house.  (Ha!)

Is that even possible? 

Linking up with...
House of Hepworths

Apples, and Cupcakes, and Owls! Oh My!

I've been playing with paper again!  I thought that I would show you what I have made and link up to Today's Creative Blog for Get Your Craft On Tuesday!

First up, the end-of-year gifts that I gave to C's preschool teachers...

Next, a cupcake commissioned by a sweet friend...

And finally--because I'm not ALL about food--a sweet little owl that is going to live in C's room...

Each of these "pictures" was made using a combination of scrapbook paper and paint chips!  So much fun!

Please take a few minutes, go over to Today's Creative Blog and check out all of the wonderful crafts!  Have a great day!

Mindless Crafting.

Good Morning.  I hope that everyone had a good weekend.  Ours was okay.  Just okay.  The weather was damp and cold.  Soccer got cancelled again.  The husband was sick again.  Just not a great weekend, but we all survived.

On Friday morning, I found myself buying a straw wreath at a garage sale two streets over.  Friday afternoon, I found myself tearing strips of fabric and pushing them into that wreath.  I call it "mindless crafting."  What do you think?

I think my front door needs to be repainted, but I'm undecided on the wreath...

Here's a close-up:

Too 1990s?  Too little girl's bedroom?

Sometimes I find that I have to be crafty in order to stay sane and the end result doesn't really matter.  This was one of those times.  So be honest...

Should it stay or should it go?

Sew Happy.

We are 45 minutes away from soccer practice, my house is a mess (again), but I am feeling pretty darn happy because I just finished making something and I really, really like it.

This is one of those things that has been done to death--a fad that has come and gone, but that's okay.  I tend to be on the slow boat when it comes to most fads.  My goodness, I've had an Ipod for three years and--yesterday--for the first time--I downloaded itunes for it.  I'm slow.  What can I say? 

This has been too much build-up for my little item, but here it is anyway:  My very first Tissue Pack Cover!

Little and cute!

I think the part I'm most happy with is the quilting.  It's something I haven't done much and, though it is far from perfect, it worked out pretty much how I wanted it to.  Here's a close up:

and the inside of the pack has red polka dots like the trim:

So, there you have it.  A fun little project with a happy ending.  I think I'll take it to soccer practice because I'm sure to get the sniffles in the pollen-filled park!

P.S.  I used a tutorial from Alderwood Quilts for this project.

Two Down.

After my fearful meltdown yesterday (and last night), I finally finished two projects.  As I worked, I repeated The Nester's motto over and over again:

~It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful~

So here is my first pillow for the shop:

Pillow front

Pillow back

And here is my first picture:

Definitely not perfect, maybe not beautiful, but I hope that both items will provide a little happiness to someone out there.

Fear of Finishing.

Good Morning!  Here it is Wednesday morning and I have nothing to write about, nothing to share.  I have lots of projects "in progress," but nothing completed enough to show.  I'm trying to put together some things (pictures, pillows, etc.) to place in a local shop and I'm so excited, so filled with ideas to try, but...

I'm also filled with fear.
What if the shop owner (my husband's cousin) doesn't like my things?
What if she puts them out in her shop and they don't sell?
What if I spend more on materials than I actually earn? What if I don't earn anything?

What if people laugh?
What if I fail? 

I will admit:  I am not the most adventurous person in the world.  Riding roller coasters will never be my weekend activity of choice.  Skydiving holds no appeal.  But there is something especially scary about putting your handmade dreams out there for others to critique.

And so I begin projects--a pillow here and a picture there--but just as I am nearing the finish line with them, I find one more thing that needs to be tweaked or one element that just isn't quite good enough and I set it aside to be finished later.

But later never seems to come.

A partial list of my excuses:  I have to work on my "real" job.  I need to clean the house.  I should be playing with my child.  The curtains need to be altered.  I should finish painting.  I should be out working in the yard.  I should be starting some type of exercise program.  I need to buy groceries.  I have to take C to school.  I have to take C to soccer.  I really need to clear off the kitchen table before J comes home from work.  It's time to make dinner.  My craft room is too messy to find anything.  I don't have everything I need.  I should write a blog post.  I should finish the book I'm reading.  I should be looking for a full-time job rather than playing with my crafts...

Each night at bedtime, I think about my goals and whether or not I'm moving towards them.  I think I am.  I've taken baby steps in the direction of my dreams, but I think that it's time for a leap.

A leap of faith...

Old Mizzou.

I was feeling crafty this weekend so I engaged in more patch mania! 

Hmmm...Looks better in real life.  As I worked on this one, I found myself humming this:

"Fight, Tigers, fight for Old Mizzou,

Right behind you, everyone is with you,
Break the line and follow down the field,
And you'll be, on the top, upon the top;
Fight, Tigers, you will always win,
Proudly keep the colors flying skyward,
In the end we'll win the victory,
So Tigers, fight for Old Mizzou!"

I had to memorize that for my sorority a million years ago!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I made five other "pieces" as well.  One stinks, but I'm really excited about the other four.  I'm still deciding how I want to frame them.
Time to clear the kitchen table (a serious chore!) and make dinner.


Have a great week...

Patch Madness.

Lately, I've been having fun making these:

It seems that I am addicted to patchy goodness...

I've linked up with Carrie at Dittle Dattle.  There are some great links over there so be sure to take a look!

Finishing & Starting.

We had a little pocket of spring weather last week.  It was great, but now it's back to winter and that's okay because it has provided a little inspiration to finish up a project I started after Christmas:

I really like how it turned out, but what I like even better is the idea that I came up with for my scraps:

Can you guess what I'm going to do with my little yarn balls?


I've also started working on a springy little pillow and I really like how it is turning out...

...but what I like even better is the idea that I came up with for my scraps:

Are you sensing a theme? 

Have a scraptastic Presidents' Day!

I Heart Buttons.

Time to get to work...

Love Birds.

Want to know what makes me happiest in the world? Taking a stack of materials like this:

and turning them into something like this:

Such fun!